He waited for hands to go up, inwardly groaning when very few stayed down.
He nodded to Marcus Tannon who spoke up.
“That requires a scientific approach. I handle the brawn. I want to assure everyone that the Guardsmen will work double time to contain anything that attempts to come through from the other dimension.”
Carol spoke up, her tone just short of a sneer. “And what about the ones that do get through? That judge, what’s his name? He told us this would happen. Maybe some of us should have listened. I for one won’t feel safe in my bed until it’s sealed. Holding them back is nothing but a band-aide.” A few others nodded along with her assessment.
Lucas temper spiked at the dig. He admired the fact that Marcus kept an even demeanor as he answered, ignoring her reference to Fino Vas’ earlier warning. “That’s true. It needs to be sealed. But we need time to find a solution. You know the unpredictability of Portals. We need to make sure we get it right.”
She gave a disdainful nod and looked away, unconvinced.
Feather spoke up. “Seems that for a while, we may have to deal with the possibility of more of them tumbling through into our world.” She slanted an apologetic look in Lara Bing’s direction. Lara had gone bone white at the mention.
“I’m not sure we have the room to house them all…” she continued.
Marcus Tannon didn’t let her finish, “We have no intentions of taking them prisoner. They are like rabid dogs. You don’t rehabilitate diseased animals. You put them down…”
Several gasps echoed up and down the table. But more than half simply looked satisfied.
“How do you do that exactly?” Wendy Seul asked. Lucas frowned at his wife. He knew she’d asked strictly for the benefit of the council members who were less informed than she. His wife already knew the answer to the question.
Marcus Tannon’s voice was hard, the Guardsmen sitting beside him nodding grimly. “We take them out so they don’t come back. We finish it. As Judge Vas informed us, decapitation will do it. Removing the heart, or a fire that burns hot enough.” He nodded to two of his guards who held up their hands. “Ash and Cole are Pyromancers and can really turn up the heat if needed.”
Almost immediately fire engulfed their hands and arms as if they were holding twin torches up. As they watched, the flames deepened to blue, the heat spreading and causing several chairs to scoot back and away from the intense warmth.
“Enough.” Marcus warned. The flames winked out.
Lucas sighed. Many of the council members were elected members of Bitterroot’s civilian population. They weren’t soldiers or used to the seedier part of life. Their day jobs included cushy chairs and large desks in air-conditioned offices. At the mention of be-headings, among other things, he watched them blanch green.
“I believe that is enough Marcus, I think they get the point.” Marcus, who had been warming to his subject, looked down along the length of the table and reddened at the sight of so many horrified expressions.
“Oh, right. Sorry about that, I forgot.”
Lucas cleared his throat, “Ahem, so moving right along. I just want to assure you we will take all necessary precautions to make sure this doesn’t happen again…”
The door behind him swung open, hitting the wall and startling the occupants of the room, who all turned with a gasp.
Inwardly, Lucas swore. In the open doorway stood Judge Vas himself, his robes hanging gaunt on his tall thin frame. He wasn’t alone. Several of his lieutenants stood just behind him. They eased into the room uninvited, spanning the back of the room, and Lucas noted, blocking the only way out. Was it wrong that he felt threatened by the ancient Vampire’s presence?
“I believe we mentioned the rudeness of showing up uninvited once before, did we not, Judge?” Lucas ground out, his fists clenched and working to contain the surge of menace he felt. His knuckles crackled with power.
The Judge didn’t respond to the unconcealed rebuke. Instead, he moved more fully into the room. “Given the unprecedented attack yesterday on Bitterroot’s civilians, I felt maybe having someone more… knowledgeable… in vampire psychology and their physical attributes might be handy.
“If it involves beheading the victims, we’ve been put up to speed thank you and I’m good with that.” Lara Bing breathed, her face as pale as death.
He sent her a scathing glance. “Yes, I’m sure Mr. Seul has shared what limited information he has at his disposal. But I’d like to add some more you may not be aware of. Foremost, while fire, be-heading, and removal of the heart is effective. A stake almost never is. Unless you hit dead center of the central aorta to cause absolute exsanguination, they will come back. There were several gagging reflexes activated on the other end of the table.
Feather Hodges snatched the wastebasket and passed it down, her trembling fingers the only outward display of anger.
“As well, garlic is worthless. And they don’t; I repeat, do not require permission to enter your house. They have no problem marching right in and snatching your child…”
“Enough!” Lucas roared and leapt to his feet, all reason flying out the door as the retching hit his ears and the putrid sour smell filled the room.
“Are you out of your mind? What are you trying to do? Causing widespread panic and hysteria is not what Bitterroot’s citizens need!” But he wondered if that had been the Judge’s intention.
The Judge’s eyes narrowed at the rebuke. “Well, maybe if you had listened earlier…” he left the rest of the sentence unfinished, but the implication didn’t go unnoticed.
“I will repeat Judge Vas. You are in charge of the Vampire Nation. You have no jurisdiction in Drae Hallow and do not have a say in what happens regarding its citizens. That is my call, not yours. You came here uninvited. I let the first time slide. But now I am asking you to leave. We’ve got this. We do not need your help.”
Judge Vas had the nerve to smile, but the humor was missing in his eyes. “I will confess I find that debatable. Maybe you should ask the people of Bitterroot if they feel safe in your care. Seems to me it’s a case of too little too late. No matter. I’m here if you need me.” The judge gave a stiff nod to the rest of the seated assembly, a small smile visible as he turned and left with his lieutenants who hadn’t said a word. Lucas wondered if they were there to protect him. The way he ran his mouth, it was small wonder he didn’t need it constantly.
A short while later a subdued Council adjourned and Lucas watched everyone file out intent on their families and homes and how best to protect them. Lucas headed for his. Wendy maneuvered along beside him, expertly manipulating the controls of her Magical wheelchair to keep up with no problem.
“There’s something about him that makes my skin crawl. He’s so arrogant and full of himself. I don’t trust someone who thinks life is so expendable,” Lucas ground out.
Wendy glanced up at her husband, her blue eyes reflective in the sunlight shining down on her glossy red mane of hair, pulled back in a purple butterfly clip. “I don’t think he has much confidence in the Magical race. I get the feeling he thinks vampires are the superior in every respect over humans and the rest of us as well.”
“Power hungry.” Lucas muttered. Knowing it was true. The judge didn’t inspire much in the way of confidence nor trust.
But another thought plagued and niggled in the back of his mind. Had he been too complacent? Should he have paid closer attention and acted sooner than he had? Could he have prevented what happened?
He thought of Sadie and his son and the others. Just how deep were they mired in this complete mess. He’d told them to keep out of it. The consequences if the Judge caught them sticking their nose in Vampire business were final. It should have been clear enough to keep them out of the thick of things. He frowned.
So why was he so worried about them?
One word came to mind.
Sadie…
#
Mom would be home in three days’ time, and for the first
time in as long as I could remember, I cared about what the house looked like when she got there.
By my side, Nick kept pace as we walked towards Breathless. “Remind me again of why we are doing this?”
“Because the house is a pig-sty and I have to clean it back up before she gets there.”
“It’s never bothered you before…” he started.
I slanted a mean look in his direction, in no mood to discuss cleaning. I wasn’t looking forward to it. “You know, you didn’t have to come. It’s not like I asked you to.”
He looked guilty. “I need some things from the sporting goods store, what was the name of it?”
I stared at him as we cleared the forested part of Shephard’s Mountain and emerged into the fading sunshine of early evening. We were in my backyard, which butted up to the trails leading up the mountain.
“What was it you said you had to get? Remind me. I seem to have forgotten.” He ignored me. I was sure it was on purpose.
“Hey, it looks like she got home early,” he remarked all of a sudden.
I whipped my head around towards the drive faster than you could blink, dread swimming upstream in my gut. But the drive was empty.
I scowled and turned back to Nick, who was grinning like an ape. “Shoulda seen your face. Priceless.”
I pulled back and punched him in the arm hard enough to wipe the smirk from his face.
“Hey, ouch!”
“Yay me.”
I took the steps in two bounds, my key out and in the lock. I opened the door and immediately stepped back as the stench rolled through the doors and plowed into us both. Ugh! Maybe I should have done the dishes before I left to stay with Kimmy almost a week ago.
“Gross. I am not going in there,” he stated, nose wrinkling in disgust.
I slanted a mean smile in his direction. “Good. Maybe you should go shopping at that store you don’t know the name of while I get this cleaned up?”
Nick shot me a smirk as he backpedaled off the steps and into the yard to escape the smell. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll let you have at it and I’ll be back in a couple of hours…” he started.
I stopped him. “Better yet. I’m going to be starved by then. Meet me downtown at the pizza joint and we’ll get supper before we head back up.”
He frowned. “Where?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed up my sleeves. “Ask around, it’s a small town and everyone knows where Borders Pizza is.”
He scowled at me and shrugged. “Fine. Have fun,” he quipped and moved down the driveway.
Breathing through my mouth, I stepped across the threshold and headed towards the kitchen and the cleaning supplies under the sink.
#
Two and a half hours later, I slid into the red-vinyl booth across from Nick. It wasn’t Smaug’s, but the pizza in Breathless was still decent and I was starving. I looked at the large supreme pizza. Over half of it was gone and the melty hot cheese had cooled to a dull plastic surface. He’d been waiting a while.
He stared at me as I sat down across from him, eyes at half-mast like he was considering a nap. Maybe he was. I know I could have used one.
“Been waiting long?” I snagged a piece and took a bite, stifling the moan of satisfaction. It was still delicious and I was hungry.
“Only the better part of an hour. What took you so long?” he complained.
“Laundry. Had to wait for a load to dry.” I explained. Beyond the window the daylight had lost the battle with night, and I caught the final smear of sunset as it dipped beyond the horizon. But I was comfortable in the dark. It seemed we’d done some of our best work when the rest of the world was sleeping.
“You get everything you need from Shephard’s Sporting Goods?” I asked, not really believing he’d been shopping. I gave a grunt of surprise when he lifted a smallish bag that no way had taken over two hours to find. He’d had some time on his hands.
It had been a while since I’d been in Breathless. I’d seen the selections playing at the local theater on my way into town, and suddenly I wasn’t at all interested in calling it a night. “Wanna catch a movie before we head on up? One of the Marvel films is playing.”
He shrugged and tried to cover a yawn. “Sure. Maybe it’ll wake me up for the trip back.”
#
It was closing in on past10:00 by the time we left the theater and made our way down Mueller’s Street. Breathless was larger than Bitterroot, but not by a noticeable amount. The setup was similar with most of the businesses arranged around a central downtown along Main Street. Side streets led to the residential area that fanned out from the center. Shephard’s Mountain Sporting Goods was one of the few businesses that stood back and slightly apart from the rest of the town. I stared at its darkened store front as we moved past, and I remembered the first time I’d explored it and admired its impressive collection of cross-bows on one of my first trips into Breathless. It seemed like forever ago and I was no longer the naive girl with a mile high chip on her shoulder. Drae Hallow and Rule 9 had changed me. I smiled in the dark.
And finding out I was a real live dragon had helped too.
“Kinda reminds me of a human version of Bitterroot. Not that different; other than some of the names.”
I nodded. It was true. The street and store names gave it away as a human community.
“Do Magicals live here too?” I wondered.
Nick nodded. “Well, yeah. You did. And Sirris and her father were here, remember? So a few do. Few humans know that, though. Those that do tend to be more accommodating of the unexplained when it’s their daughter or aunt that’s turning into a monster or can command fire with their fingertips.”
I nodded, my fingers sparking when Nick suddenly reached down and grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. My palm tingled and the butterflies started up in my stomach as I glanced up and our eyes met. We shared a smile as we dipped down Taylor Street.
The night air was cool and I shivered, though I wasn’t overly cold. But the dampness that accompanied the falling dew made it seem that way. The streets lay deserted, and it seemed like we had the town to ourselves.
Which is why my heart kicked up a notch when Nicholas suddenly yanked me off the sidewalk and behind the massive trunk of an oak tree in somebody’s front yard. The street we were on ran parallel to the backs of several businesses, but what had snagged Nick’s attention was up ahead of us, emerging onto the sidewalk like he owned it. The identity of the shrouded figure was obscured beneath a set of heavy grey robes, complete with an expansive hood that fell forward and obscured the face of whoever was sneaking along the sidewalk.
The cowl swung side to side as whoever it was moved ahead of us at a fast clip.
I looked up at Nick and we shared a moment. In my experience, regardless of whether you were human or Magical, only those up to no good slunk about this late at night trying to keep their identity hidden. Which was all the incentive we needed to follow and find out who it was. We had more experience than I cared to think about in just such covert operations.
We hung back as far as we dared, keeping to the relative cover of the trees and buildings as we paced the dark figure ahead. Twice we had to scramble as whoever it was froze and looked back, as if they sensed they weren’t alone. Whoever it was had a very suspicious nature, which only confirmed their nefarious intent to my mind.
We didn’t talk. The whispered words would carry on the night air, and especially if the figure was Other or Magical, their enhanced hearing would pick it up. Instead, we relied on the pressure of our clasped hands to warn each other when to scram out of sight.
Abruptly, at the corner of Elm and Dingham, the figure took a hard left. We made it to the corner, picking up our pace, and used the cover of a small public bathroom building to peer around the corner—and jump back. The figure had moved a good fifty yards down the street and stopped to look towards where we stood just out of sight. I hoped we hadn’t been seen. We figured our luck had held when s
everal seconds passed and nobody popped around the building at us and said, ‘boo’. We moved in behind the figure again, more cautious now because whoever it was acted suspicious, as if they sensed they had a tail. The street lamps flickered, casting a glow over the sidewalk in spots we avoided. Many of them had burned out in the old residential neighborhood. But a few remained, enough to make our surveillance a tricky thing.
Once more we ducked when the shrouded figure reached the end of the next road beneath a lamp that flickered and stuttered oddly, almost as if it couldn’t decide whether it should remain lit or blink out completely. From our concealment behind the impressive stone wall of someone’s un-mowed lawn, we watched the figure stare in our direction, the darkened cowl of the hood falling forward and continuing to hide the identity. And then the figure looked up. For a single second, the lamp limned his features in its yellow glow as his claw-like fingers reached up beneath the hood to pull a gauzy dark film over his face. I gasped before I could help myself. Nick’s hand slapped over my mouth in alarm from behind where he peered over my shoulder.
The figure froze, turning to stare eerily back in our direction, the gauze giving him the appearance of being a faceless shadow. I shuddered. And then he took off, taking the next right hard.
Beside me, Nick swore and grabbed my hand. Together we sprinted to the corner he’d been standing on and peered down around the building he’d skirted. But he was gone.
I stared at the street sign—Waldorf. The Sign next to it told us it had no outlet. It was a dead-end street and when I examined the houses that sat along it I frowned. Several of them looked vacant and empty. This was definitely the slum district compared to the rest of the houses in the neighborhood.
“I think that’s the end of the road for us, Sadie.”
I glared at him, disgruntled. But I didn’t argue or protest when Nick did an about face and dragged me back by his side at a fast clip toward the better-lit sidewalks closer to Breathless’ main thoroughfare.
Inside, my mind was buzzing with questions that didn’t have answers.
Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2) Page 39